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This Week's Round-Up: April 29, 2026 |
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Across immigration, climate, and foreign policy, the party is moving to the right
BY LLOYD AXWORTHY
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Take asylum. Canada once had a system based on independent hearings, a reluctance to turn people away. What we’re building now is something different: pre-screening that cuts off claims before they reach the Immigration and Refugee Board, paper-only departmental reviews, a one-year time bar that can block a full hearing regardless of how someone’s situation has changed. The people affected aren’t abstractions. They’re students, workers, people whose circumstances evolved and who face real harm if sent back.
Meanwhile, the promised end to using provincial jails for immigration detention turned out to mean opening a “temporary” facility inside a federal prison in Quebec. United Nations experts have called on Canada to abolish immigration detention.
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The Walrus Talks AccessAbility is a live recording of Courage Inc. hosted by Duncan Sinclair, Deloitte Chair of Canada and Chile, who brings years of leadership and expertise to this urgent discussion. Featuring talks by four speakers from the disability community on policy frameworks, leadership, and innovation, the importance of technology, corporate rollbacks on DEI, and the persistence of ableism, the talks will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Sinclair.
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This week on What Happened Next, host Nathan Whitlock is joined by Ira Wells. His most recent book is On Book Banning: Or, How the New Censorship Consensus Trivializes Art and Undermines Democracy, published by Biblioasis in 2025. Ira and Nathan talk about the sense of cultural fear and helplessness that seems to be behind the resurgence of book banning, about how his book was inspired not by a conservative drive to ban books but by a so-called “library audit” at a school in the heart of progressive Toronto, and about his return to biography for his next book project.
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— Harley Rustad
Senior Editor, The Walrus
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